With the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine; with tensions rising among and between the United States, China and Russia; with hotspots – “flashpoints” — such as Taiwan, South China Sea, North Korea, Iran; with the always simmering “Arab-Israeli conflict,” new conflicts in Africa, just to name a few, the profile of the U.S. military cannot help but to come more into focus. The role of the U.S. military in providing humanitarian assistance after tragedies and disasters such as floods and earthquakes also sharpens the focus.
Various National Security and Defense agencies and organizations provide excellent daily or weekly photographic images and commentary that help one put such events into perspective in a way that only the visual record can.
Here are some for the past week or so (unless otherwise indicated, all DoD/U.S. government photos):
Lead image: The Commander in Chief visits the capital of embattled Ukraine.
Air Force airmen assist humanitarian relief efforts by offloading a 52-bed emergency field hospital tent at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey.
An Air Force airman prepares to load a piece of critical equipment onto a C-5 Super Galaxy at Joint Base Charleston, S.C., Jan. 31, 2023. The equipment is part of a $53 million humanitarian package being sent to Ukraine to support the country’s energy infrastructure.
A U.S. Air Force U-2 pilot looks down at the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon as it hovered over the Central Continental United States.
In what the U.S. Africa Command (Africom) describes as a “collective self-defense strike,” a new U.S. military airstrike in Somalia killed seven alleged militants in Somalia, approximately 300 miles north of the capital city of Mogadishu/
The United States has deployed or extended more than 20,000 additional U.S. forces to Europe and forward stationed the first permanent U.S. forces on NATO’s eastern flank. It is also “nearly quadrupling the number of American troops deployed to Taiwan for training.”
An E-2C Hawkeye flies over the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz during routine operations in the South China Sea, Jan. 31, 2023.
Chinese fighter jet confronts US Navy plane with CNN crew aboard as tensions simmer in the South China Sea (CNN screen shot)
